Hospital staff ‘missed baby’s condition’
HOSPITAL bosses have settled a legal claim after staff failed to detect a genetic condition in a baby born with multiple defects and who later died.
The mother, who has not been identified, was under the care of East Cheshire NHS Trust (ECNT), which runs Macclesfield Hospital.
Solicitors acting on her behalf said that during the 20 week scan the baby was found to have a cleft lip and the mother was told that there was unlikely to be any long term implications.
But when the little boy was born he suffered respiratory distress and had multiple abnormalities including extra digits on both hands, a club foot and a prominent coccyx, as well as the cleft lip.
The boy was diagnosed with Edwards’ syndrome and died when he was two weeks old. When the mother became pregnant again, she discovered that given the evidence of cleft lip, a referral should have been made to a fetal medicine specialist.
The mother claimed that if this had happened, further scans and test would have confirmed the syndrome and termination of pregnancy would have been offered and accepted.
Philippa Luscombe, partner in the Penningtons Manchester clinical negligence team who led the claim, said: “This was an extremely sad case where our client was not driven by obtaining any compensatory award.
“She just wanted to investigate and, if appropriate, highlight the errors made by the trust to ensure that no other family would go through the same devastating experience.
“Edwards’ syndrome is a rare condition where the prognosis for a child is extremely poor.
“Although this would have been an extremely difficult decision for our client to make, it was her evidence that, if she been aware of the high risk of delivering a baby with Edwards’ syndrome and the quality of life and outcome for that child, she would not have proceeded with the preg- nancy, not least to save her baby from the amount of suffering he endured during his very short life.
“It is hoped that lessons will have been learned to avoid similar failings happening to other families.”
An East Cheshire NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We would like to express our deepest sympathies to the claimant in this case and offer our sincere apologies for the shortcomings in the care she experienced.
“A review of the case found that trust staff followed local guidelines relating to referral and screening at the time of the incident four years ago.
“These guidelines have since been strengthened so that expectant mothers meeting appropriate criteria are now offered a nuchal translucency ultrasound scan and blood test in the first trimester which screens for Edwards’ Syndrome, along with other abnormalities.
“This is consistent with national guidelines and gives expectant mothers indication of Edwards’ Syndrome at an early stage.”